General Background Study and Historical Base Map, Assateague
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GENERAL BACKGROUND STUDY and HISTORICAL BASE MAP Assateague Island National Seashore Maryland - Virginia By EDWIN C. BEARSS DIVISION OF HISTORY Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation December 18, 1968 ational Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior BASIC DATA STUDY HISTORY Assateague Island National Seashore December 31, 1968 Prepared by Edwin c. Bearss Approved by •oooo•••OOOOO• Regional Director, NE • TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Table of Contents •• $ 0 0 i 0 0 List of Maps and Illustrations Q • 0 0 0 0 ii Foreword iii Chapter I Geographic Setting 1 Chapte.c lI Giovanni ca Verrazzano and Assateague • • 3 Chapter III First Settlements • • • • 7 Chapter IV The Pasturage of Horses and Cattle 0 • 18 Chapter v Inlets 0 0 25 Chapter VI The Life-Saving Service and United States Coast Guard • • • • • 0 34 Chapter VII Assateague Light 48 Chapter VIII German Submarines off Assateague • 59 Chapter IX Villages and Communities 0 80 Chapter X Economic Activities Other Than Livestock Raising and Hunting • • • • • • • • 91 Chapter XI The Extension of the Hook at Toms Cove . • 98 Chapter XII Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge •• • 0 0 100 Chapter XIII Assateague Island National Seashore •• 0 0 101 Appendix A Reports of Assistance • • • 0 0 0 0 0 • 102 Appendix B Vessels Destroyed by U-151 • 0 0 128 Appendix C List of Classified Structures • 0 • 131 Appendix D Land Classification •• • 134 Bibliography 000000000 0 0 136 i LIST OF MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE Following Bibliography I Historical Base Map--Assateague National Seashore II North Beach Coast Guard Station III Crew of Pope's Island Life-Saving Station IV Front Elevation of Pope's Island Coast Guard Station V West Elevation of Boathouse & Kitchen of Pope's Island Coast Guard Station VI Crew of Assateague Beach Life-Saving Station VII Assateague Light VIII Wharf at the Seaboard Oil & Guano Company IX Oil Tanks at the Seaboard Oil & Guano Company X Employees & Structures of Seaboard Oil & Guano Company XI Seaboard Oil & Guano Company XII Keeper's Quarters, Assateague Light XIII Assateague Village Schoolhouse ii FORE\.\DRD This report has been prepared to satisfy the research needs as enumerated in RSP-H-1, General Historical Survey and Historical Base Map, Assateague Island National Seashore. The area's historic sites have been identified, evaluated, and plotted on the His- torical Base Mapo Structures that are to appear on the List of Classified Structures have been identified, as well as the lands and resources to be designated Class VI in the Land Classification Plan. A number of persons have assisted in the preparation of this report. Particular thanks are due Superintendent Bertrum Roberts and the following members of his staff: Miss Lynn McGrath, Gordon Noreau, John Hunter, and Gunner Guardipee. Information secured from long-time residents of the area: Judge Walter Price and Ralph Watson of Snow Hill; Mrs. Addie Carey, Mrs. Indiana Henry, and James Quillen of Berlin; and Miss Melvina Shepherd and Norman Jones of Chincoteague was of great assistance. Dr. Reginald Truitt of Stevensville, Maryland, was also helpfulo I wish to extend special recognition to William B. Marye of Baltimore. Besides having prepared the best single article on iii the area, "The Seacoast of Maryland," published in the Maryland Historical Magazine, Mr. Marye has cheerfully shared with me his vast knowledge of Assateague Island and has made a number of trips to the Maryland Hall of Records to secure data on the original land grants. To Frank Sarles I wish to extend thanks for proof- reading the final draft; to James Sheire my appreciation for trans_,,, ~~ng the logs of the German submarines lHl 7 and £::1_51; and to F. Ross Holland for his suggestions as to source materials for the chapter dealing with Assateague Light. Finally, I wish to thank Mrs. Sarah Smith for the many hours she put in typing the manuscript. E. C. B. Washington, D. C. December 18, 1968 iv CHAPTER I Geographic Setting The Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay embraces three main physiographic regions: (a) the mainland, (b) the coastal is- lands, and (c) the marshes. Of these, Assateague Island National Seashore includes only one: the coastal islands. These islands, low and sandy, occur as a chain along the Atlantic Ocean, paralleling the area throughout its length, and varying from one and one-half to eight miles in distance from the mainland. The islands, bars which vary in width from several hundred feet to about one-half mile, form an almost continuous barrier, broken only by narrow inlets leading into bays, channels, and salt marshes lying between them and the mainland. 1 Today Assateague Island extends 36 miles from Ocean City Inlet in the north to Chincoteague Inlet in the south. In the past the island was divided into several barrier is- lands by inlets, but at present these are all closed. Assateague Island is separated from the mainland by Sinepuxent 1. The Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, Charles So Clark (ed.), 3 volso (New York, 1950), ~' 30. 1 Bay in the north and Chincoteague Bay in the south. Assateague Channel and Assateague Bay separate the southwestern portion of the island from Chincoteague Island. Assateague, as well as the other coastal islands, possesses many sand dunes which' are often shifted and altered by the winds. These dunes are seldom more than ten or 15 feet in height. On the landward side .)~ tne island there is a belt of salt marsh. 2 -. 2. Ibid., 33. The dune sand is composed of shifting, incoherent sand built up into dunes by wind action. Ibid., 36. I #### ## # 2 CHAPTER II Giovanni de..Verrazzano and Assateague The first Europeans to set foot on the Eastern Shore of Chesapeake Bay belonged to the crew of Dauphine commanded by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator in the service of King Francis I of Franceo In 1523 at Dieppe, France, Verrazzano outfitted Dauphine and shipped a 50-man crew. Leaving the Madeira Islands on January 17, 1524, the ship made her first landfall on March 7 in latitude 34°, near Cape Fearo Crusing the coast east and north, Verrazzano mis- took the North Carolina outer banks for an isthmus, separating J the Atlantic Ocean from a supposed Oriental Sea. He now coasted northward about 50 leagues, to where he came "to another land which appeared much more beautiful and full of the largest forests." Here he put ashore a landing party of 20 men, who penetrated eight miles inland. 1 After remaining off the coast for three days, Dauphine resumed her run up the coast as far as 50° latitudeo lo Harry Fo Covington, "The Discovery of Maryland or Verrazzano's Visit to the Eastern Shore1 " Maryland Historical Magazine, 10, No. 3, 204-205. 3 Nothing in Verrazzano's descriptions of Arcadia, as he called the area, discloses the point where the landing party from Dauphine came ashore. But inasmuch as the landing party went inland eight miles without encountering Chesapeake Bay, it may be inferred that the point of disembarkation was well to the north of Cape Charles. Harry F. Covington, who made an ext,c1ustive study of the subject, has concluded that Verrazzano "may have sailed into Assateague Bay through the southern opening, known to us as Chincoteague 'inlet;' here lay at anchor; and then departed by way of the opening off Sinepuxent Neck." If he had cruised the coast of Assateague Island, it would have been impossible for him to have observed I the wooded mainland across the intervening spit and bay, seven miles across. Above Sinepuxent Neck, however, the bay narrows, and the wooded mainland is visible from the sea. Covington concluded that in all probability Verrazzano 11 landed at the lower end of Assateague Bay, somewhere opposite Chincoteague Island, and then passed throµgh the bay, and also landed at the upper end of the bay on Sinepuxent Neck. 112 Verrazzano, on going ashore in the new-found land, sighted a naked Indian youth, his hair "fastened in a knot," who on seeing the white men, appeared terrified and "stood 2. Ibid., 207-211. 4 hesitating and ready for flight." As a gesture of friendship, he lifted a burning torch "as if to offer us a fire.'' A shot inadvertentlyfired into the air by one of the explorers panicked the Indian, who fled into the woods. The landing party determined to follow in hopes of locating an Indian village. After they had proceeded about eight miles, they found their way impeded by the swamps of the upper Pocomoke River. Nowhere were any signs of human habitations to be seen. Finally, a squaw and a young girl were sighted, each carrying three small children on their backs. One of the children was seized and taken back to Dauphine. When he filed his report of his voyage of discovery on I his return to France, Verrazzano reported that the Indians of the region were lighter in color than those previously - encountered, and they used mossy foliage (apparently collected from the cypress trees along the Pocomoke) as clothing. They subsisted on "pulseH or wild peas, and by hunting and fishing. As the area was barren of rocks and metals, the Indians used arrows with shafts of reeds and tipped with sharpened animal and fish bones. Their boats were large dugouts, hollowed 3 out with fire. 3. Ibid., 211-212; Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, .!_, 5-6. 5 Site Evaluation and Recommendations Although Verrazzano navigated Chincoteague Inlet, Chincoteague Bay, and Sinepuxent Bay, he did not land on Assateague Island. Consequently, the Verrazzano story cannot be tied to any specific site on the island, and will have to be interpreted to the public in the Visitor Center.